Category Archives: Far right racists

Father jailed over Walsall EDL rally violence

Posted on by Bob Pitt

He went out to protest on the streets of the Black Country, his face covered with a mask bearing the cross of St George, before hurling missiles towards police. But today father-of-two and English Defence League supporter Gareth Ballan was starting a 27-month sentence behind bars.

Ballan wore the mask as he joined hundreds of others for the English Defence League rally in Walsall town centre. As scenes turned ugly he was seen to throw two missiles, one a drinks can and the other an unconfirmed object, which may have been a brick, towards a police line. He was later seen standing at the front of a crowd of EDL supporters with his arms raised in the air, chanting and encouraging the crowd by pointing towards the police line.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court, sitting in Birmingham yesterday, he was sentenced to 27 months for violent disorder relating to the events of September 29, 2012.

Continue reading →

SDL member posted Facebook call for arson attack on Edinburgh Central Mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SDL AberdeenA man has been warned he could face jail for posting a Facebook comment about burning down a mosque in the wake of Lee Rigby’s murder. Derek Phin, 46, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to posting the threatening and abusive remark on the social network last June.

British soldier Lee Rigby was off duty in southeast London when he was attacked and killed on May 22 last year. Radical groups then tried to exploit the soldier’s murder resulting in attacks and protests against the UK’s Muslim community.

Phin, of Aberdeen, admitted posting on Facebook that Edinburgh Central Mosque should be burnt down on July 2 during a counter demo. The mosque was due to be packed at the time for a meeting organised by pressure group Unite Against Fascism in response to extreme right wing protests.

Fiscal depute David Bernard told the court that police had been tipped off to Phin’s comment which he put online on June 30. He said: “On July 13 police received information that a comment of a racially motivated nature and thought to incite racial hatred had been posted on Facebook social network site on a page pertaining to the Scottish Defence League.

“One of the comments had been from a user account in the name of Derek Phin and had been posted on June 30, 2013 as part of a conversation about a Unite Against Fascism campaign to be held at an Edinburgh mosque on July 2. The comment attributed to Phin read ‘burn the mosque down when the meeting is ongoing’.”

Police confronted Phin at his home in Aberdeen on September 4. He was taken to a police station where he admitted making the comment and stated he was a member of the Scottish Defence League. He was then cautioned and charged.

Continue reading →

Dansk Folkeparti leaders divided over whether to restrict Muslim immigration or ban it completely

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marie Krarup DFSenior members of Dansk Folkeparti espoused the opinion that there are enough Muslims in Denmark and border controls should be established to stop more from entering the country.

DF’s defence spokesperson Marie Krarup [pictured] said that the time has come to completely halt Muslim immigration. “We should limit the size of the Muslim minority in Denmark,” Krarup wrote in a blog for Berlingske newspaper.

Anders Vistisen, number two on DF’s list of candidates for the European Parliament, agreed that the number of Muslims in Denmark should be limited. DF’s citizenship spokesperson, Christian Langballe, couldn’t see how a total ban against Muslims could be put into place. “It is impractical to call a complete halt, but I think that Muslim immigration must be limited,” he told Berlingske.

Continue reading →

Anti-Quilliam protest at Plymouth University

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Anti-Quilliam protest in PlymouthA protest against a speaker specialising in Islamism and counter-extremism has taken place at Plymouth University tonight. Around 30 people gathered to show their anger at Sheikh Dr Usama Husan giving a lecture at the uni. It comes after he failed to condemn an image from the online cartoon “Jesus and Mo” showing Jesus and Mohammed saying “hey” and “how ya doin” to each other.

Dr Hasan is a senior researcher in Islamic Studies at Quilliam was speaking at the Jill Craigie cinema tonight on the topic of Islam and democracy in the wake of the Arab Spring. The University cites Dr Hasan as a trained imam and a scientist with a PhD, MA and MSc from the Universities of Cambridge and London, and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Around 30 people from the university’s Plymouth Islamic Society protested at the event as he had not condemned the actions of Quilliam co-founder Maajid Nawaz, a Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn who retweeted the controversial image. They gathered peacefully in the lobby area of the Roland Levinsky building ahead of Dr Hasan’s arrival. A few “boos” were heard as he entered the lectured theatre.

Continue reading →

‘Let them go to Saudi … we are not a dumping ground’ – Kevin Carroll condemns decision to accept Syrian refugees

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Grudgingly, belatedly and on the eve of a Commons debate over a Labour motion that would very likely have resulted in defeat had they opposed it, the Tory-led coalition government announced yesterday that Britain would temporarily resettle up to 500 refugees from Syria.

The government has still not signed up to the United Nations programme that has seen Germany take in 10,000 refugees, and the tiny number it has agreed to accept must be seen in the context of the millions who have fled the civil war in Syria. The select few who are to be admitted to the UK will be only “the most vulnerable”, namely children, the elderly, the disabled and victims of torture and sexual violence.

You might think that nobody with a shred of civilised feeling would object to giving refuge to these desperate people. And you’d be correct. Vocal opposition this token humanitarian gesture has mainly been restricted to the scum of the far right. Here, for example, we reproduce a series of tweets and retweets by former English Defence League co-leader Kevin Carroll angrily denouncing the government’s decision.

Continue reading →

Islamophobes’ legal bid to stop planned mosque in Cambridge because it could be ‘front for terrorism’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A protest group has been criticised for a legal application to stop a £17.5 million mosque being built in Cambridge, in which they claimed it could be “a front for terrorism”.

Stephen Gash, of Stop Islamisation Of Europe (SIOE), and Sareeta Webra, founder of Sikhs Against Sharia (SAS), made an application for a Cambridge County Court injunction to prevent the mosque in Mill Road being built. The application calls for a “court injunction to be served against the Muslim Academic Trust for construction of a mega-mosque”.

The campaigners claim the planning consultation was not conducted “lawfully”. And the application adds: “It is well documented that many so-called Muslim charities are fronts for Islamic terrorism and that several of those cited are based in the United Kingdom.”

Continue reading →

No show by EVF at Croydon Islamic centre

Posted on by Bob Pitt

EVF Croydon mosque harassmentSupporters of two right-wing groups did not follow through online threats made against an Islamic centre.

Last week the Advertiser reported that three men had appeared in a video recorded outside Anjuman-e-Zaini, in Brighton Road, South Croydon, late on the evening of January 19.

The men, believed to be connected to the English Defence League (EDL) and its splinter group the English Volunteer Force (EVF), can be seen ringing the doorbell and accusing the licensed place of worship of being an “illegal mosque”. One then threatened to return on Friday to “have the place over”. The video was posted online and the men also took to social media to invite others to join in.

Anjuman-e-Zaini, which has targeted by the groups in the past, contacted the police after being informed of the video by the Advertiser. Secretary Shaukat Dungarwalla said that Friday, and the weekend, had passed without incident. He added: “Fortunately nothing happened, but then police have been excellent. They put the lid on the issue.”

Croydon Advertiser, 27 January 2014

Police closing in on Birmingham EDL riot suspects

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Police hunting thugs who brought violence to Birmingham city centre during a bloody EDL rally have identified almost a third of the suspects they want to quiz – and will be knocking on their doors.

As the Sunday Mercury exclusively predicted last week, West Midlands Police went ahead with a special appeal on TV’s Crimewatch and broadcast 64 images culled from CCTV footage. Last night they revealed that 17 men had now been identified as a result, and that the search for all the others was continuing as officers followed up new leads supplied by members of the public.

Stills taken from security camera footage were shown in the nationwide appeal to trace those who took part in bloody clashes on July 20 last year. Smoke bombs, cobblestones, and bottles were hurled at police as the EDL and their opponents drew battle lines in the city centre, leading to injuries and damage.

Continue reading →

Kevin Carroll backs leader of violent racist campaign against Rohingya Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hasan Lennon Nawaz and Carroll
October 2013: Quilliam announces Lennon and Carroll’s ‘break with extremism’

Since Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) and his cousin Kevin Carroll appeared at a Quilliam press conference last year to announce their resignation from the leadership of the English Defence League, opponents of racism and fascism have concentrated on exposing the fraudulent character of Lennon’s supposed break with extremism.

With “Tommy” now safely locked up, beginning an 18-month prison sentence for his part in a £162,000 mortgage fraud, it is perhaps time to turn our attention to Carroll – who, just like Lennon, was presented by Quilliam as a man that had renounced his far-right, anti-Muslim past.

Continue reading →

Mosque plan at school site abandoned due to parent fears

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SDL protest against Eastwood mosquePlans for a mosque within the grounds of a school in one of Scotland’s most affluent suburbs have been dropped.

Council chiefs said the ­proposals, for Newton Mearns, south of Glasgow, had created a significant public response and that it was being abandoned, in part, due to criticism of the move.

A report on wider proposals for the East Renfrewshire area, which is expected to be agreed next week, says: “In view of the volume of representations received, the sensitivity concerning the proposal and the extremely wide range of issues raised, it is recommended that this proposed modification be pursued no further and is not included in the plan.”

The proposals for the mosque had been put forward by the local Muslim community as there is no permanent place of worship for Muslims in Newton Mearns, despite demand for more than a decade. The Muslim community had suggested a ­residual parcel of land next to the new Eastwood High School was its preferred site for a religious and community facility.

The Scottish Government’s Reporter, who adjudicates on planning issues, has recently been critical of the length of time it has taken local Muslims to secure a permanent place of worship in the area and allowed temporary change of use of a former nearby British Legion club for Muslim prayer services.

An alternative location north of Newton Mearns has now been recommended, but another suggestion would be dependent on wider development plans.

Proposing the plans, Nazir Ahmed, a trustee of the East Renfrewshire Mosque and Community Centre group, said the East Renfrewshire Muslim community had been resident for more than 40 years and is “one of the fastest growing communities that actively contributes to the vibrant and ethnically authentic nature” of the area.

But the Eastwood High mosque plans sparked an opposition campaign, with parents complaining about a religious facility being built on non-denominational school grounds. Parents said they had concerns at the possibility of violent protests outside the school gates and the potential for vandalism, fireraising or even terrorist-style bomb attacks following interest in the proposal from far-right extremists.

Continue reading →